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Push (2009): Feels like a live-action anime film made by a western director. The lonesome hero is even accompanied by a sidekick in the shape of a young, little girl wearing a short skirt. In any case, now that her career as a child star is kinda over, Dakota Fanning proves she doesn't have the necessary chops to make it as a great actrice.

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Apparently that one was surprisingly pretty good, better than it looked, anyway.

Not really. I mean, it wasn't like Jumper, as one might perhaps expect, but I didn't see anything "good" about it either. Whatever it tries to do, it's so defeated by X-Men and the first season of Heroes.

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes is surprisingly not the train wreck I expected.

It's a really good movie, and if you leave before the credits you miss something important.

You don't have to stay all the way after the credits just about several minutes in.

Will the academy have the balls and the guts to nominate Andy for Best Actor? He deserves it.

there are several touching moments and nicely timed references to the original.

I just came to the board after seeing it specifically looking for your opinion. I remembered disgruntled your reaction when you first saw the trailers, but I am glad your judgement has done you well -- this is a surprisingly effective (I wouldn't say good) movie. It's very intelligently crafted (it knows when to throw ideas for the viewer to chew and when not to), Andy Serkins provides possibly the best performance for an animated character ever and, more importantly, the whole thing has a heart. Couldn't be more satisfying.

Maybe I'm just lowering my standards. But a few years ago, when Hollywood succumbed to the whole "let's reuse already marketed material instead of trying to sell an original concept in a one-weekend time frame" thing, you were lucky to get a movie as organically engaging as 2009's Star Trek or 2008's Iron Man. This year, between X-Men First Class, Harry Potter, Captain America and Rise, it feels as if Hollywood has finally forgotten about nostalgia and learned to "own" old franchises. They just don't seem to feed off references to the original anymore. They are their own thing. At least where blockbusters are concerned, this is a good thing.

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I keep hearing how this turned out much better than it looked; but I just can't get past the awful cgi chimp I've seen in the clips. It's just so fake and unbelievable and the only reaction we keep having to the trailers is one of unintended sniggers and eye rolling. I doubt I'll ever get around to seeing it.

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Rise of the Planet of the Apes is surprisingly not the train wreck I expected.

It's a really good movie, and if you leave before the credits you miss something important.

You don't have to stay all the way after the credits just about several minutes in.

Will the academy have the balls and the guts to nominate Andy for Best Actor? He deserves it.

there are several touching moments and nicely timed references to the original.

I just came to the board after seeing it specifically looking for your opinion. I remembered disgruntled your reaction when you first saw the trailers, but I am glad your judgement has done you well -- this is a surprisingly effective (I wouldn't say good) movie. It's very intelligently crafted (it knows when to throw ideas for the viewer to chew and when not to), Andy Serkins provides possibly the best performance for an animated character ever and, more importantly, the whole thing has a heart. Couldn't be more satisfying.

Maybe I'm just lowering my standards. But a few years ago, when Hollywood succumbed to the whole "let's reuse already marketed material instead of trying to sell an original concept in a one-weekend time frame" thing, you were lucky to get a movie as organically engaging as 2009's Star Trek or 2008's Iron Man. This year, between X-Men First Class, Harry Potter, Captain America and Rise, it feels as if Hollywood has finally forgotten about nostalgia and learned to "own" old franchises. They just don't seem to feed off references to the original anymore. They are their own thing. At least where blockbusters are concerned, this is a good thing.

I couldn't be more fair, I really disliked the previews and loved the film. I can't count how many previews I loved and then hated the film.

Quint, the effects are more polished in the film. There are still some less than satisfying ones, but the most impressive were the orangutan, and the gorilla.

The humanity of the film is enormous.

Paranormal activity is not realistic enough to really get me.

I know realistic is a relative term, but I feel like BWP could have actually happened, I don't feel that way with Paranormal Activity. I had a hard time sitting through that.

BWP was a pile to me, but I either got sick on the popcorn or the shaky cam. I would say the shaky cam but I got sick a few times on the popcorn before. I walked out with 10 minutes to go. Finally saw the ending on HBO.

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Limitless: The director made a very entertaining film (almost plays like a superhero movie) and Bradley Cooper is good in it, although I do wonder if he truly possesses the stuff that stars are made of. Hollywood seems to think he does. A good, solid 7/10 movie.

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I personally don't want Cooper in the part, I find him to be very smug, but he's the man of the moment isn't he. Fillion or fuck off, I say.

Watched The Count of Monte Cristo last night. Bloody hell can't believe I left it all this time to see this superbly well done slice of old-school Hollywood adventure. Richard Harris turned in a wonderful extended cameo as the mentor, I'd forgotten how charismatic he could be. Kevin Reynolds proved himself to be rather adept at this sort of fair, what happened to him I wonder.

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It's really good, this. Very visual and yet also very literary (dialogue in particular). Pitt is really creepy in this one. More films like this, please.

Hulk

I've seen it once before in cinema 8 years ago. I won't say I'm a fan, but it is certainly light years ahead of anything Marvel's been feeding us for the last couple of years. There are characters in here and the film has something you might call a style. I love how it makes the stupid concept plausible by using the almost Freudian/Jungian parallels.

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It's really good, this. Very visual and yet also very literary (dialogue in particular). Pitt is really creepy in this one. More films like this, please.

One of my favorites of the last ten years. It instantly made me a big fan of Andrew Dominik, even though he doesn't make a lot of films (sorta like Terrence Malick). His debute film Chopper (starring an incredible Eric Bana) is also very, very good. I'm looking forward to his next film Cogan's Trade, also with Brad Pitt.

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It's really good, this. Very visual and yet also very literary (dialogue in particular). Pitt is really creepy in this one. More films like this, please.

Hulk

I've seen it once before in cinema 8 years ago. I won't say I'm a fan, but it is certainly light years ahead of anything Marvel's been feeding us for the last couple of years. There are characters in here and the film has something you might call a style. I love how it makes the stupid concept plausible by using the almost Freudian/Jungian parallels.

Karol

why is this movie so loved by Europeans, yet few Americans care for it?

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I don't mind either. He was great in Jesse James! And I'm sure he's good in The Tree of Life too. I though Ridley Scott was the producer of The Assassination Of Jesse James?

They both produced this. Pitt also produced The Tree of Life. I applaud him for this.

I highlighted Jesse James.

I won't even try to convince you it is worthwhile as it simply isn't your thing, but I can just say what it looks like from my perspective. It's not a typical genre film. We, Europeans have a soft spot for this kind of a thing. I like that the slow pace and a unreal feel to it. The characters are all strange and you all these looooooong pauses and all that. It uses music well (which by itself isn't anything special) and is photographed in an interesting way. I can appreciate why it gets on somebody's nerves though.